


Community Planning

by scatter



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Gen, Subtext, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-07
Updated: 2013-12-07
Packaged: 2018-01-03 16:17:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1072561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scatter/pseuds/scatter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All Kanji'd wanted was a nice day of gardening but of course in Inaba nothing ever goes as planned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Community Planning

Back when his Ma was in better shape, before his old man died and left her to deal with everything on her own, she'd had a garden out behind the shop. Not big or fancy, it was nice enough all the same, and she'd spent a lot of time out there, sitting and watching the flowers grow.

Despite his own hobbies, Kanji hadn't been able to understand the appeal. But he was older now, and maybe even a little smarter after hanging out with Souji-senpai and his friends, so when he noticed the garden one day, all overgrown and abandoned, he cracked his knuckles, dug her old tools out of storage, and decided he was going to do something about it.

But, fuck, he hadn't expected it to be so hot. Global warming must've been kicking in.

"How'd she do this?" he muttered, wiping the sweat off his forehead. In hindsight, he should have brought a towel out with him but he was too dirty to be allowed back in now, and while he wasn't exactly keeping this a secret from his Ma he didn't want to draw her attention to it either, not until it was done.

Had she really always made this seem so easy? He couldn't remember her complaining but for every weed Kanji pulled up there were two more that he'd missed. And this was only the first part - if he wanted to get this garden back into shape he'd have to figure out what flowers would grow best and then buy some seeds, maybe even pick up a couple bags of dirt while he was at it, and he'd have to remember to water them so they didn't dry out...

Just thinking about it made him tired. But the idea of leaving it half-finished and having his Ma see it all torn up, a sure sign that he'd started and quit, was enough to get him pulling with renewed vigor.

Besides the heat, there wasn't too much to bother him. With the street blocked off by the shop, he didn't have to deal with anyone staring at him, whether it was kids his age who were scared of him or adults waiting for him to screw up, and the sounds of people going about their business were muffled. He didn't have to think, either, and that was nice because with all that had been going on recently - being thrown into a TV, finding out there was some sicko doing the same to girls like Rise and Yukiko - there was a hell of a lot to mull over.

He thought he was starting to see why his Ma had done this.

"Here you are."

Kanji didn't immediately place the voice, and when he looked up he half-expected to see Souji-senpai, who had a knack for finding people. "Yosuke-senpai. What's up?"

"Not much." Yosuke took a couple of steps forward, dragging his feet, before stopping slightly too far away. The distance immediately made the conversation awkward. "What about you, what are you up to?"

Kanji gestured to the mess in front of him. "Plantin'."

"Huh." Yosuke glanced back the way he came and edged out of sight of the street. "How's that going?"

Kanji shrugged. "It's not bad. Keeping me busy, and that's gotta count for something."

"That's cool," Yosuke said, sounding uninterested. "Your mom ask you to do it?"

"Nah," Kanji said carefully. He had to watch what he said around Yosuke. They weren't exactly on bad terms but Yosuke had a nasty habit of making fun of his hobbies and they tended to argue more often than teammates should. It bugged Souji especially, who was determined that they all get along. "Figured I'd do it for her anyway, you know? Give her a nice surprise."

Yosuke made a vague noise and rocked back on his heels. Kanji doubted he was actually listening.

"Look, Yosuke-senpai, I don't mind talking but I'm kind of busy. If you wanna hang out, you're gonna have to pitch in." Or at least stop standing around, acting like he didn't want to be here. Kanji pointed to a trowel he tossed to the side in favor of his hands.

Yosuke frowned. "I'm not big on gardening," he said, but to Kanji's surprise he came over and took a seat on the ground. "What do I do?"

"Uh..." Caught off-guard, it took Kanji a second to answer. "Start pulling weeds?"

"Okay." Yosuke hesitated, looking the plants over. "Which ones are weeds?"

There were a few of flowers that had avoided getting choked out, and Kanji might have been able to save them if he tried hard enough but he didn't want to deal with the headache. "Just get rid of everything; I'm clearing it out and starting fresh. Think you can handle that?"

"Yeah, I got it."

Yosuke pulled without complaint but that was about the only thing he had going for him. Whether it was the result of inexperience or if he simply wasn't trying, most of his attempts left the roots intact, making his efforts useless. When he did do it right, he tossed the remains haphazardly off to the side instead of placing them in the pile Kanji had set aside, creating a mess Kanji doubted he was going to help clean up.

Kanji tried to hold back his frustration. Yosuke was helping, and that had to count for something, didn't it? He kept up his own deliberate pace, hoping that Yosuke would take the hint and follow his example, but Yosuke barely paid attention to what his own hands were doing, much less Kanji's, too busy glancing back towards the street like he was waiting for someone.

Eventually, Kanji couldn't take it. "That's enough. If you're not going to do it right then you might as well stop."

"Huh? Oh, sorry." Yosuke wiped his hands on his pants. He had a look on his face like he wanted to speak up but couldn't figure out how to start.

Partly because he felt it was expected of him, Kanji asked, "Something on your mind?"

Without looking at him, Yosuke asked, "You've been around Inaba for a long time, right?"

"Grew up here," Kanji said. A lot of the kids in school talked about going off to live in the city once they were done with school but from what Kanji'd seen not many people actually went through with it. Personally, he'd never felt the desire to leave. For one thing, all that noise and traffic wouldn't be good for his Ma's health. "Why, what's up?"

"I need help figuring something out. What's a good place to hang out with someone?"

Kanji eyed him suspiciously. He wouldn't have thought he was high on the list of people Yosuke would come to for advice. "Why aren't you asking Chie-senpai or Yukiko-senpai?"

"Because I'm asking you. What," Yosuke asked, "you don't want to help me?"

"Not if you're going to be an ass about it." Kanji pulled out another weed and tossed it into the pile, still considering why Yosuke came to him instead of them. "You thinking about asking one of them out?" He couldn't picture it, not with the way he and Chie were always butting heads, and from what he'd heard Yukiko'd already shot him down without even being aware of what she was doing.

Yosuke made a rude noise. "No."

"Aiming for Rise?"

Yosuke didn't reply for a moment, temporarily dumbstruck. Despite all they'd been through with her Shadow, he wasn't entirely used to having her in the neighborhood yet. Shaking himself, he said, "Nah. Why, you think she'd say yes?"

"I doubt it, she's all over Senpai." Saying that clicked things into place for Kanji. "Oh, I get it. You're looking for a new place to hang out with him."

"Yeah." Yosuke stared at Kanji hard, like he was daring him to say something about it, and Kanji stared back at him, weirded out - was he missing something? Abruptly, Yosuke realized he was being strange and looked away nervously.

"If that's it, why didn't you just say so?"

Yosuke shrugged. "Does it matter? Anyway, you got any ideas?"

Kanji rubbed his neck as he thought, forgetting he had dirt all over his hand until he felt it falling down the back of his shirt. "A lot of guys hang around Junes or head out of town to goof off in the woods..."

"I wasn't talking about here," Yosuke said. "I know how boring this place is." That got Kanji's back up. There was no denying Inaba was small but it had a lot of stuff going for it, and more importantly it was his hometown. Yosuke always seemed to forget that when he badmouthed it to people or maybe he just didn't care. "I was thinking more like Okina. And it's got to be somewhere nobody's gonna bother us. He's getting popular lately and it's starting to get annoying."

Okina? That was harder. Kanji didn't venture into town very often and being seen as the school punk meant most people weren't exactly clamoring to hang out with him. "Jeez, I don't know. There's the arcade, most people will be too busy playing games to care about you, or you could check out the movie theater. There's a bunch of shops, too, you could always window shop, buy some crap."

"I'm not taking him out so he can waste money," Yosuke said, "and those are all boring, I could do that with anyone."

"Then, uh, the library? The park? They've got a pool, a museum..."

Yosuke shook his head and made a frustrated noise that only got on Kanji's nerves.

"Shit, I don't know," he snapped, not understanding why Yosuke was being such a pain. He took a deep breath to calm down, and tried to consider what he knew about Souji's interests. He liked ordering them around in the TV, folding envelopes (though he wondered if Souji hadn't been joking about that), spending time with cute things like Nanako-chan, making his own lunch... "They opened up a new cafe in town, the kind where you can play with animals while you eat."

That caught Yosuke's attention. "Seriously?"

"I saw it on a commercial," Kanji said. He'd been meaning to go check it out but hadn't gotten around to doing so.

"He does like animals," Yosuke said slowly. "He's always petting stray cats and visiting that weird fox."

"He likes Teddie, too," Kanji reminded him. Teddie might not have been the usual kind of bear but Kanji was sure he counted, and he and Senpai were close. He probably even got to pet his fur, lucky guy.

"Yeah, that's right."

Watching Yosuke grow more attached to the idea, Kanji added, "One thing, though: it's sort of a couple place. I'm not saying people don't go alone or with their friends but don't be surprised if you see people on dates."

"Couples, huh?" Yosuke stared off at nothing and started to go red. Kanji wondered if he was reconsidering trying his luck with Rise.

"Yeah but I wouldn't worry about it too much, I doubt Senpai'll care about that. Still, figured I'd warn you. I don't want you finding out and coming back to me all pissed off I didn't say anything."

"He won't mind," Yosuke agreed, "and those places always serve sweets, right? He'll like that. Do they open early?"

"Don't see why they wouldn't."

"Great," Yosuke said, and then added a hesitant, "Thanks."

"Eh, it's nothin'." Kanji turned back to the garden. "If you really want to thank me, you can do a better job helping me with this."

"Dude, I don't want to waste my day pulling weeds."

"And you think I do? How about getting me some water then? You gotta make yourself useful somehow."

Before Yosuke could answer (to say no, Kanji was sure), someone spoke up from behind them.

"So this is where you disappeared to." Yosuke jumped and hurried to his feet as Souji came around the side of the shop. "I turned around and you were nowhere in sight. I thought you might have gotten lost."

"Funny," Yosuke said. "You done talking with Rise?"

"Yes; the shop got so crowded I had to leave. Did you know tofu was so popular with our classmates? Because I didn't." Kanji didn't know if Souji was joking or legitimately clueless about their classmates' sudden interest in the shop. It was hard to tell with him. "You're hanging out with Kanji? That's good."

"Yeah, I thought I'd lend him a hand," Yosuke said.

"Hmm, is that how it went?" Souji looked him over and smiled. "You've got dirt on your knees."

Yosuke rushed to brush it off and Souji continued to watch him for a moment, amused, before turning to Kanji. "Have you taken up gardening?"

"Nothing really, just fixing this up for Ma."

"That's nice of you," Souji said, and Kanji looked away, embarrassed. "How's it going?"

Not wanting to go into detail, Kanji settled for pulling a face.

"That well? Do you need some more help?"

"You serious?"

"Sure, it might be fun. Plus," Souji added, "it'll be a good team building exercise."

Kanji wasn't sure about that but if Souji wanted to lend a hand, he wasn't about to turn him down. He had to be better than Yosuke and ever if he wasn't he couldn't be worse.

"Hold up," Yosuke said, abandoning his efforts to clean up. "Can I talk to you for a second, partner? Over here?"

Kanji wasn't sure why Yosuke felt the need to lead Souji away or lower his voice, but he could recognize when someone wanted privacy and he busied himself straightening the mess Yosuke had made earlier. Still, it was his yard and they weren't exactly whispering, so he didn't feel too bad when their conversation drifted his way.

"Are you free tomorrow?" Yosuke asked.

"More or less."

"Cool. Do you wanna hang out, just you and me? There's a new pet cafe up over in Okina and I thought we could check it out. If we go early, we can beat the crowd. Or if you don't want to do that," he added quickly, "we could go to the arcade or catch a movie. It's not like I've got it all planned, we can do whatever you want."

He sounded so nervous that Kanji risked a glance at them to see what kind of expression Souji was making. Far from being annoyed or uninterested, however, Souji looked intrigued.

"The cafe sounds fun," he said. "I've never been to one like that."

"Yeah? So it's good?" Kanji hadn't realized Yosuke had been holding himself so tensely until Souji nodded and he let out a short, relieved laugh and relaxed. "Great. And afterwards if you want..."

"We could see about a movie," Souji suggested. "Even if there's nothing good playing, we can probably find something to make fun of."

"As long as you don't get us kicked out the theater." Sounding more like his usual self, Yosuke continued, "I guess I'll pick you up at your house. Unless you want to meet up somewhere?"

"No, you can come by, that's fine. But not too early; it's Dojima-san's day off tomorrow and he's grumpy in the morning."

Reasonably sure he wouldn't be interrupting anything now that they'd gotten the details knocked out, Kanji felt it was safe to take Souji up on his offer before he changed his mind. He barely got out more than a, "Hey," however, before a familiar voice drowned him out.

"See, Yukiko, I told you I saw him go back here! Wow, has this place always been here?"

Kanji sighed and stood up with a stretch, wincing as his back cracked. The odds of making any progress were getting slimmer by the minute. He just hoped Rise and Teddie didn't decide to pop up; the yard was starting to feel awfully crowded.

"Hi, Chie," Souji said, not missing a beat. Considering his own habit of showing up without notice, he probably expected other people to do the same. "Yukiko."

"Hey guys," Chie replied automatically before stomping her foot. "Wait, I'm mad at you. I was calling you for like a whole minute but you ignored me!"

"Did I?" Souji asked. "Sorry, the crowd at the shop was so loud that I didn't hear you."

"I guess it's not a big deal. I did manage to track you down." She looked around, taking in their surroundings. "This place is pretty neat! But what are you doing back here? Is this some secret secret boys only club you've been hiding from us?"

Yosuke rolled his eyes. "If it was, don't you think we'd be doing something cooler than hanging out back here?"

"No, not really."

"Actually," Souji said, "Yosuke was just telling me about a new cafe in Okina."

Kanji thought he saw Yosuke stiffen.

"Really?" Yukiko asked. "I hadn't thought you were interested in those kinds of things, Yosuke-kun."

Yosuke didn't meet her eyes. "It's not really for me."

"It's a pet cafe," Souji continued, prompting the girls to make interested noises. "We're planning on going tomorrow."

"I've heard about those," Chie said. "They're getting really popular lately, but I always wondered how you were supposed to enjoy the food when you were covered in cat hair. Unless they make you eat first and then it doesn't matter? Oh, you know what? We should all go! Then I could just find out."

Yosuke's eyes widened. "What? No."

Souji turned to him questioningly. "You don't think so? It could be fun."

"No, partner, listen, I don't--" Yosuke's face went red again. "I don't want anyone else to go."

Souji frowned slightly, confused, while Chie let out an offended huff. "Why not? You shouldn't hog something like this all to yourself. I like cute stuff, too! Or do you think I don't?"

"When did I say that?"

Clearly not wanting to get drawn into what was shaping up to be an argument, Yukiko moved closer to Souji. "Do you know what kind of animals they have?" she asked.

Eyes still on Yosuke, Souji said, "He didn't say but places like this usually have little ones, don't they? Cats and rabbits, things like that."

"It sounds nice," she said. "My parents won't let me keep any pets, and the maids chase the strays away so I can't feed them. I wonder how good the food is."

Meanwhile, Yosuke was asking Chie, "Why do you even want to go? Don't you and Yukiko already have a dog?"

"He doesn't count, he's hardly cute at all!"

"Then put a bow on him!" Yosuke shot back. He took a deep breath, trying to get himself under control. "Look, we had this figured out, it was gonna be just two of us. A guy thing. You can understand that, you and Yukiko do girl stuff together, right?"

This only confused Chie. "What kind of guy stuff are you doing at a pet cafe?" she asked, and Yosuke's shoulders slumped as he failed to come up with an answer.

Forgotten on the sidelines, Kanji couldn't help but feel sorry for him. It was clear now why Yosuke hadn't gone to the girls for advice, and just as clear that he was giving up hope on convincing them not to tag along. Kanji doubted it was even about the cafe at this point; Chie might have decided to be stubborn out of sheer annoyance that he was trying to tell her she couldn't do something.

Well, Kanji'd been the one to suggest the place and while he wasn't about to take the blame for any of this, the least he could do was help Yosuke out. Plus, the longer they kept fussing with each other the more likely they were to bother Ma and he wasn't about to let that happen.

"Come on, Chie-senpai," he said, doing his best to sound reasonable, "let them go alone. You wouldn't like it if Yosuke-senpai tried to get in on your plans with Yukiko-senpai, would you?"

Yosuke looked at him gratefully.

"No," she admitted, the fight leaving her as she imagined their roles reversed. Slightly embarrassed, she added, "Still, Souji-kun's not complaining."

Souji had been staring at Yosuke thoughtfully throughout the conversation. "Actually," he said, sounding like he'd come to some important conclusion, "I think I'd rather if it were just Yosuke and me."

Yosuke straightened up hopefully and asked, "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Souji repeated, smiling at him. "I'd like that."

That was the end of it, wasn't it? Kanji clapped his hands together sharply. "Sounds settled to me," he said. "You heard him, Chie-senpai, sorry."

Chie made a show of giving in, though it was obvious now that she didn't actually care. "Okay, okay, I get it. You can have your guy thing, and your secret boys' club, but you better not complain when Yukiko and I start one and it's better than yours."

"Good luck with that," Yosuke said. He went to stand at Souji's side, more at ease than Kanji'd seen him all day.

"We could always go to Okina ourselves," Yukiko told Chie. "Even if we don't go to the cafe, there are lots of other things to do. Weren't you talking about seeing a new movie the other day?"

"Yeah, the new kung fu movie." Chie struck a pose and began to bounce energetically. Kanji edged back in case she got too excited and tried to act a scene out, and noticed Yosuke doing the same. "It's all the real stuff, too, no stunt doubles or dumb explosions."

Yukiko nodded decisively. "There you are, we can see that."

"What, together?" Yukiko's mouth tightened in annoyance and Chie rushed to explain herself. "I didn't mean how it sounds! It's just, you're not usually interested in these movies."

"They're not all bad," Yukiko admitted. "The setting in this one looks very well done, and afterwards, we'd be able to visit the cafe on our own. It'll probably be better that way; I imagine Souji-kun would hog all the animals if we went together."

"Not all of them," Souji said unconvincingly.

"If you're really okay with it..." Chie said uncertainly, waiting until Yukiko nodded before allowing herself to get excited. "Great! We'll do that. You're gonna love this one, trust me."

Satisfied it was all working out, Kanji asked, "So everything's all figured out? Everyone's happy?"

"Except for you," Chie pointed out. "You're getting left out. Do you want to see the movie with us? I wasn't serious about the girls' club, you can tag along."

"That's tempting but I'm good. You go have fun, I wanna get this taken care of as soon as possible." He jabbed a thumb towards the garden, which seemed to have grown even more weeds while they talked.

"That's right, we should get back to it." Souji began to roll up his sleeves. "It's good you and Yukiko came along," he told Chie, "you can join in. Team building exercises work better when more of us are here. Too bad Rise's busy."

Less than enthusiastic, Yosuke asked, "Partner, you don't seriously want us to do this, do you," and sighed in resignation when Souji looked at him blankly.

"Gardening?" Chie frowned and eyed the exit to the street. "Wow, that's... That sounds awesome, really, but we should probably go check on those ticket prices for tomorrow, right, Yukiko?"

"There's no rush, we can do that later," Yukiko said brightly. The possibility of getting her hands dirty had caught her interest, and she knelt down to examine the garden, not the least bit concerned that she might stain her dress. "What exactly are you doing, Kanji-kun?"

"Pulling weeds," he answered, and she made a sound as if he'd said something incredibly interesting. "I can't say it's all my work, though, Yosuke-senpai pitched in ealier."

"No way," Chie blurted out.

Offended, Yosuke said, "Yeah, I did. What's so hard to believe about that?"

"Well, it's not exactly the kind of thing I picture you doing," she explained, gesturing at him vaguely. "You're very...city-like. Does that makes sense?"

"No."

"You don't seem like you'd be good at this," she said bluntly.

"Hey, I'm great! Tell her, Kanji." Put on the spot, Kanji coughed awkwardly and mumbled nonsense under his breath. Yosuke scowled at him. "Whatever. I bet I'm better than you."

Chie laughed. "You wanna try and prove it?"

"If you think you can handle being embarrassed, bring it on."

"Great," Souji said, not batting an eyelash at their behavior, "we're getting motivated. That's good."

Was it? Kanji had a feeling they'd do more harm than good in their current state - and that was saying something given what he'd seen of Yosuke's lackluster skills - but if Souji wasn't going to let it bother him, Kanji'd try to ignore it as well. "So, any of you done this before?" he asked.

"I've done flower arranging," Yukiko said, tugging on a weed and frowning when it snapped halfway down the stalk. "It's not quite the same thing, of course, but I'm sure they can't be too different."

"You sure you want to do this, Yukiko-senpai?" he asked her gently. He'd seen her hold her own often enough in the TV to know she was tougher than she appeared but he still felt like he should offer her a sunhat. "It's pretty boring."

"I'm sure it'll be fun once I get the hang of it. Should I be using this?" she asked, holding up the trowel up awkwardly.

"If you want, it might make things easier for you. What about you, Chie-senpai," Kanji asked as she sat next to Yukiko, "you got a garden at your house?"

She stopped exchanging challenging looks with Yosuke briefly. "Not with our dog. I think he ate an entire planter once, and after that my mom gave up trying to make the yard look nice."

Already aware that Yosuke was a lost cause, Kanji looked to Souji as his last chance, hoping that their leader would reveal he'd been hiding a green thumb. Instead, Souji simply shrugged.

"Alright, uh..." He was worrying over nothing, Kanji assured himself. This was so easy Nanako-chan could have done it. "It's not hard, just dig in, make sure you grab the root, and then toss 'em in that pile."

"Hear that?" Yosuke told Chie as he and Souji got settled on the ground. "Do it right or it doesn't count."

"I should be the one saying that." Chie nudged Yukiko, nearly causing her to drop her trowel. "You're on my team so help me out, okay?"

"We're doing teams now? Fine - partner, you're with me."

Seeking some reassurance, Kanji asked Souji, "You guys can handle this, right?"

"Well, I didn't expect we'd split into teams," Souji said slowly, doing absolutely nothing to raise his confidence, "but I'm sure some healthy competition can't hurt."

It took thirty seconds for Souji to be proven wrong, Yosuke and Chie to start sabotaging each other's efforts, Yukiko to nearly break the trowel on a rock, and for Kanji to realize that accepting their help had been a bad idea.

He headed towards the house.

"Yo, where do you think you're going?" Yosuke called after him. "Get back here and help!"

"I'm getting something to drink, I'm thirsty as hell." And after he did that, he was going to apologize to his Ma. Because by the time they were done, he wasn't sure she'd have a garden left.


End file.
